Midnight Reflections

We humans love to categorize people and things using the filter of our preconceptions. It's not necessarily a bad thing. At least, it is normal. It becomes a serious problem, however, when we become convinced that our pet idea is transcendant; that it is established and immutable, divine decree, universally known truth, or painfully clear fact.

The reason I've become so sceptical in my life of this kind of certainty is two-fold:

1) Often, when I've known something for years, I discover that I was wrong.
2) Being that sure of something makes one nearly unteachable.

Now, particularly in matters of the heart, man is foolish to get all fired up about just how certain he is of objective reality. The nature of God, the state of grace of a fellow human, the motives of others, what exactly was meant by an elderly christian leader nearly 2000 years ago in an obscure quote from a letter written to a group of christians in Asia Minor ... These are all areas where we have a tendency sometimes to decide we know that we know when knowing isn't really possible at all. We hope, ponder, muse, extrapolate, deduce, assume, infer and even guess and the best we come up with is our version of someone elses version of something.

I am not in the least opposed to strong opinions. I have many of them. Like Plato, however, who recorded his musings many moons ago, I'm learning that the more I study and learn, the less I feel I know. I no longer fear the cool fingers of uncertainty. They prod me on, motivate me to learn more, to see what great minds have said of these things.

Often the process is more rewarding than the product. Any reader knows that the last page of a great book is a bittersweet moment. So it is with exploring the philosophical unknown. I want to know more about God; what He is; how we have shaped Him in our minds and how others have done so in times past; how that differs from observable phenomena; what is meant by salvation; how it works and why; what people think it does; why they try to box it up; why people do the things they do and under what forces of nature or spirit; what the ancients said about questions that still nag us today...the list goes on. If I were able to fully answer all these questions to my satisfaction, life would be drained of the wonder of the adventure.

There are more than enough answer vendors in the world, certain about everything and probably right about much less. I take the road less traveled by and believe that it makes a great difference.